I skidded into the expo today at 16:00 and was blown away by the amount of new and interesting products available… where to start?

Talk of the town, Marius Mostert and the nurse…

Marius from Sourcelink Healthcare supplies infection control disposables and all the gear needed to protect yourself when clearing and collecting deceased. They also have an exciting new repatriation product. When deceased are repatriated, the requirement is that they are packed in a zinc container. Sourcelink have a more economical foil wrapping which heat-seals the person inside. Safely sealed and ready to go.

Kevin and Ed from Funeral Zone have a fascinating value proposition for Funeral Directors like our much loved Mike Collinge (in the foreground of the pic, with Kevin explaining how it works). Funeral Zone is an online obituary and donation tool. The beauty of this for funeral directors is that with Funeral Zone’s clever technology, people’s obituaries sit on the subscribing funeral directors website. These obituaries encourage many return visits to the funeral directors sites and I would imagine this would effectively increase word of mouth/memorability of the funeral director involved. So the more a funeral director uses this tool the more traffic they get to their site and future business leads. Hmmm…

The wonderful Anne-Marie Mandtoumbi from Mekluc Freight explained how they are able to negotiate special rates on repatriation because they deal with the airlines all the time with their import/export contacts. Funeral directors still have to do the embalming, the funeral, etc, but these guys take care of the transport. Door to door collection and delivery worldwide, plus all the associated paperwork, certification, etc. If you want to offer your clients efficient, trustworthy repatriation at the best price – these guys are the way to go!

Another new online innovation at the Expo this year – Service Arrangements. These guys have the phone app we’ve all been waiting for. The funeral director who subscribes to this service for a ridiculously low price of R99 per month or R799 per year – enters the funeral service details for their clients. The family receives an SMS with a link to the service details. which is shareable on facebook or via SMS and quickly shared with a wide network displaying the funeral director’s logo and contact details, a very good way of looking professional and attracting referrals. This product is a no-brainer, if you’re a funeral director you should be using this technology.

I think the theme of this year’s Expo for me was ‘technology’. Eddy Kluson from The Funeral has 32 different funeral pamphlet templates to choose from, and there are many more templates still being made. The funeral director, or the family themselves can sit and load their photo’s and poems to the funeral pamplet templates and print them out themselves. Wow!! Oh and another thing they do is ‘social media management’, so if you don’t have a spare moment to keep your facebook page updated, they’ll do it for you!

The funeral expo would not be the same without a couple of visitors from Mars. Simon Martins and the friendly, familiar face of ZenZele Miya from Mars Manufacturing share their shiny, eco friendly coffin handles and some ‘coffin bling’, which I never noticed before, see the pic below.

Oooh, I’m going to have to find a picture for this one, I was so caught up in the product, I clean forgot to take a photo. Andre Okes explained the incredibly low carbon emissions and being made of recycled cardboard boxes, Image Coffins and Caskets are an absolute winner for Eco Friendly Funerals. Please take a look at their website, their coffins are refreshingly, unique. The difference in the carbon emission numbers are staggering, these products should be compulsory. We hope consumers put their money where their mouths are and make a move for some of the greener options + supporting South African products!

Dirk from 4D Group Solutions was there as promised, proudly showing their multitude of funeral management software tools and internet based funeral administration system. Essential support for the efficient running of a funeral business.

SA Funeral Supplies coffins are so beautiful, one of the customers insisted on taking delivery of their order right-now-today on the first day of the Expo, so you might find a bit of extra space in their stall tomorrow. If we’re allowed to have favourites… these guys are it! they’re real people-people with some seriously stylish funeral gear, see the leopard print coffin in the foreground for Shembe funerals, (don’t panic, it’s fake, and bunny hugger friendly, so is the beautiful zebra print below)